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OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN

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DOI: 10.21894/jopr.2018.0030

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 REVIEW ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol.30 (2) June 2018 p. 163 – 195
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2018.0030 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017

OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
KUSHAIRI, A*; SOH KHEANG LOH*; AZMAN, I*; ELINA HISHAMUDDIN*; MEILINA ONG-ABDULLAH*;
ZANAL BIDIN MOHD NOOR IZUDDIN*; RAZMAH, G *; SHAMALA SUNDRAM* and
GHULAM KADIR AHMAD PARVEEZ*

ABSTRACT
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has emerged as a major economic crop feeding the world today. This
article aims to capture the more recent progress made by the oil palm industry and to discuss the possible path
research and development will take in the coming years. In 2017, palm oil and palm kernel oil production
recorded close to one-third (75.17 million tonnes) of world total oils and fats production from a planted area
of 19.04 million hectares, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia. Malaysian palm oil alone fetched RM 46.12
billion export revenue from its India and European Union markets. The continuous growth of the industry is
made possible through implementation of key strategies covering the whole process chain, from upstream to
downstream. Intensified mechanisation, integrated pest and Ganoderma management, advanced breeding
and biotechnology as well as good agricultural practices help boost oil palm yields for both plantations and
smallholdings. In the palm oil milling sector, focus such as by-products valorisation, biogas (productivity,
trapping and utilisation as a form of energy) and wastewater management, i.e. palm oil mill effluent for
final discharge compliance ensures that the industry meets its sustainable goals. Palm oil is generally used
for edible purpose, however about 20% goes into higher value non-food applications such as palm biodiesel.
The beneficial nutritional aspects of palm oil are evident based on its positional distribution and fatty acids
composition, while its quality enhanced via technology integration/mitigation and analytical elucidations.
Facing strong competition from petrochemicals, palm-based oleochemicals are strategically aimed at
producing value-added products for niche and new markets. It is apparent that synergising conventional
and disruptive technologies at every level of the palm oil supply chain is desirable and essential to thrust
the industry forward. As a commodity, palm oil has not only emerged as an important food source, but has
proven to be effectively utilised for feed, fuels and chemicals, to name a few, in developing a sustainable and
balanced circular economy.

Keywords: palm oil, oil palm biomass, economic performance, productivity, bioenergy, food and nutrition, oleochemicals.

Date received: 15 May 2018; Sent for revision: 17 May 2018; Received in final form: 12 June 2018; Accepted: 13 June 2018.

INTRODUCTION oil (PO) (67.92 million tonnes), soyabean oil (53.94

The world’s major oils and fats production, to
name a few, in their descending order are: palm
* Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 6, Persiaran Institusi,
Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: kushairi@mpob.gov.my
million tonnes), rapeseed oil (25.32 million tonnes),
sunflower oil (19.00 million tonnes), palm kernel
oil (PKO) (7.25 million tonnes), corn oil (4.31
million tonnes), cottonseed oil (4.21 million tonnes),
groundnut oil (4.14 million tonnes), olive oil (2.99
million tonnes), coconut oil (2.44 million tonnes),
etc. amounting to 221.26 million tonnes in 2017

163
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
(Oil World, 2018). PO and PKO contribute 34% or
about one-third of world oils and fats production,
signifying the importance and high productivity of
oil palm in supporting world population, covering
a total planted area of 19.04 million hectares, i.e.
0.36% of world agricultural land. Major world
producers of PO are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
Colombia and Nigeria. Indonesia is the world first
major producer and exporter of PO followed by
Malaysia. Meanwhile, world major importers of PO
are India, European Union (EU), China, Pakistan,
USA, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Philippines, etc.
In Malaysia, the oil palm industry plays an
important role in the agricultural and economic
development of the country. The successful
commercial planting of the exotic Elaeis guineensis
Jacq. in 1917 in Tenammaram Estate, Kuala Selangor
has brought about substantial social and economic
prosperity for Malaysia. The industry continues to
contribute significantly to gross domestic product
(GDP), gross national income (GNI), foreign
exchange and employment. This article provides
an insight on the performance of the oil palm
industry as well as the research and development
(R&D) undertaken for the year 2017. Specifically,
the performance of the Malaysian oil palm industry
will be discussed first, next the progress made in
R&D worldwide across the whole process chain and
lastly areas for improvement and future direction
for continued growth of the industry in the coming
years.
METHOD
A desktop study was conducted to mass review
R&D and commercialisation aspects of the oil
palm industry covering upstream - biology,
biotechnology, mechanisation, integration and
extension; midstream - engineering and processing,
biomass and bioenergy and downstream - nutrition
and food, oleochemicals. Primary data for economic
performance assessment were gathered by the
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) via regular
data collection from producers, manufacturers/
processors, dealers and other related parties of the
oil palm industry. The relevant data were collected
through online systems such as e-submission (for
planters), e-kilang (millers), e-peniaga (dealers),
e-oleo (oleochemical), e-registration (prices) and
e-QC (import and export of oil palm products). Most
of the data were collected on monthly and yearly
basis. For instance, data through e-submission
were collected on monthly basis and comprised
total planted area (mature and immature areas),
harvested area and fresh fruit bunches (FFB)
production. Besides, data such as volume and value
of exports of PO products were also sourced from
the Department of Statistics, Malaysia.
164
PERFORMANCE OF MALAYSIAN
OIL PALM INDUSTRY
The Malaysian oil palm planted area has increased
from 5.74 million hectares in 2016 to 5.81 million
hectares in 2017 (MPOB, 2018) (Figure 1). Total
planted areas in Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular
Malaysia were 1.56 million hectares (26.8%), 1.55
million hectares (26.6%) and 2.70 million hectares
(46.6%), respectively. The majority of the planted
area was owned by private estates (~61%) while
those with government schemes such as Federal
Land Development Authority (Felda), Federal Land
Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra)
and Rubber Industry Smallholders Development
Authority (RISDA), 16.1%; state schemes/
government agencies, 6% and independent
smallholders, 16.9% (Table 1). The smallholders
occupied 2.27 million hectares, i.e. 39% from the
total planted areas in 2017. An increasing trend was
also observed for independent smallholders (ISH)
accounting to 0.98 million hectares.
The average FFB yield for 2017 increased by
12.5% to 17.89 t ha-1 as against 15.91 t ha-1 achieved
in 2016 due to recovery from the impact of the El
Nino phenomenon a year earlier. Figure 1 shows
a 27-year trend in national FFB yield with a
downtrend tendency. Seemingly, FFB yield growth
was noticeably recorded throughout 2017 except in
June (Figure 2) compared to the previous year. The
yield in June 2017, as recorded, was lower than in
June 2016 as harvesters were unavailable due to
Aidilfitri festive season.
The PO milling sector has developed
tremendously with an increased number of operating
palm oil mills over time. In 1990, there were only 261
palm oil mills in operation with a total processing
capacity of 42.87 million tonnes FFB per year. Two
decades later, the number had increased by 61.3%
to 421 mills with a total FFB processing capacity of
97.38 million tonnes per year. The growth of oil palm
planted area directly contributes to the increase in
palm oil mills. In 2017, there were 454 operating
mills in Malaysia with a total processing capacity of
112.19 million tonnes per year (Table 2).
Oil extraction rate (OER) refers to the weight
percentage of PO physically recovered from a known
weight of FFB processed in palm oil mills. The
average OER declined to 19.7% compared to 20.2%
in the previous year, mainly due to lower quality of
FFB processed in palm oil mills. On average, almost
all months in 2017 recorded lower yield against their
corresponding months in 2016 except for May and
June (Figure 3). The low OER for May and June 2016
was due to prolonged dry weather arising from El
Nino effect causing inferior FFB quality. The OER in
Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak declined
by 2.8%, 2.4% and 0.2% to 19.21%, 20.60% and
19.98%, respectively.
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017

TABLE 1. DISTRIBUTION OF OIL PALM PLANTED AREA BY CATEGORY IN

MALAYSIA (2016-2017)
Category Hectarage
2017 2016
ha % ha %
Private estates 3 543 429 61.0 3 508 554 61.2
Government schemes 940 326 16.1 951 169 16.5
State schemes/government agencies 347 632 6.0 344 314 6.0
Independent smallholders 979 758 16.9 933 948 16.3
Total 5 811 145 100.0 5 737 985 100.0
Source: MPOB (2018).

22 22

18
20
16

Oil palm planted area (million ha)

17.89
14
18
FFB yield (t ha-1)

12

16 15.91 10

8
14 5.81
6

5.74 4
12
2

10 0
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Year

FFB yield Oil palm planted area

Figure 1. Fresh fruit bunches (FFB) average yield performance (1990-2017).

TABLE 2. NUMBER OF PALM OIL MILLS, REFINERIES, As at December 2017, 53 palm oil refineries were
KERNEL CRUSHERS AND OLEOCHEMICAL PLANTS AND in operation with a total annual refining capacity of
THEIR CAPACITIES IN MALAYSIA IN 2017 27.33 million tonnes. Of these, 35 refineries with a
Facility No. Processing total processing capacity of 15.48 million tonnes per
capacity (t yr-1) year were located in Peninsular Malaysia whereas
Palm oil mill 454 112 187 800 12 were in Sabah and 6 in Sarawak with a total
Palm oil refinery 53 27 328 200 processing capacity of 8.74 million tonnes and 3.12
Kernel crusher 45 7 269 700 million tonnes, respectively (Table 2).
Oleochemical plant 19 2 668 929 In 2017, a total of 17.64 million tonnes of CPO
Source: MPOB (2018). and crude PKO were processed by the refineries,
i.e. an increase of 13.1% compared to the previous
year. CPO accounted for 16.18 million tonnes (91.7%
Crude palm oil (CPO) production in 2017 of the total feedstock processed) and crude PKO at
increased by 15.0% to 19.92 million tonnes 1.46 million tonnes (8.3%). The refining utilisation
compared to 17.32 million tonnes in the previous rate increased by 8.7% to 64.5% compared to the
year. The increase was due to higher FFB processed, previous year.
up by 17.7% arising from 12.4% higher FFB yield. There were 45 palm kernel crushers in operation
CPO production in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and in 2017 with a total annual crushing capacity of 7.27
Sarawak increased by 19.0%, 7.6% and 15.1% to million tonnes (Table 2). A total of 4.97 million tonnes
10.58 million tonnes, 5.22 million tonnes and 4.13 of palm kernel were crushed, an increase of 16.7%
million tonnes, respectively. as against the previous year. The kernel crushing

165
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)

1.78

1.75

1.67
1.62
1.61

1.61

1.57
1.54

1.51
1.47

1.46
1.45

1.44
1.5

1.38

1.37

1.36
1.32

1.27
FFB yield (t ha-1)

1.17
1.2

1.14

1.10
1.05

1.97
1

0.5

0
Jan Feb Mar April May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Month

2017 2016

Figure 2. Fresh fruit bunches (FFB) monthly yield (2017 vs. 2016).

20.7

20.5

20.3

20.1
OER (%)

19.9

19.7

19.5

19.3
Jan Feb Mar April May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Month

2017 2016

Figure 3. Oil extraction rate (OER) monthly performance (2017 vs. 2016).

utilisation rate increased to 65.2% from 59.5% especially from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and the
recorded in the previous year. Philippines.
A total of 19 oleochemical plants were in India remained its position as the largest export
operation throughout Malaysia, with an annual market for the Malaysian PO in 2017 even though
processing capacity of 2.67 million tonnes (Table its total import (2.03 million tonnes) declined by
2). The utilisation rate of oleochemical processing 28.2% compared to 2.83 million tonnes in 2016, due
capacity in 2017 increased to 94.9% from 85.2% to competition from Indonesia and higher import
recorded in the previous year, in line with higher of sunflower oil. The second largest export market
volume of PO and PKO processed. was the EU with 1.99 million tonnes or 12.0% of
Due to higher export volume and better prices of total PO exports, followed by China 1.92 million
oil palm products, the total export revenue from oil tonnes (11.6%), Pakistan 1.02 million tonnes (6.1%),
palm products in 2017 increased sharply by 14.62% the Philippines 0.75 million tonnes (4.5%), Turkey
to RM 77.85 billion compared to RM 67.92 (c)billion 0.68 million tonnes (4.1%) and Vietnam 0.63 million
achieved in 2016 (MPOB, 2017). PO export earnings tonnes (3.8%). These combined seven markets
alone increased by 11.3% to RM 46.12 billion against accounted for 9.02 million tonnes or 54.5% of the total
RM 41.44 billion in 2016. PO export volume in Malaysian PO exports in 2017. The slight decline
2017 increased by 3.2% to 16.56 million tonnes (3.3%) in export of PO to the EU in 2017 was due to
(Table 3) compared to 2016 due to higher demand, higher import of PO from elsewhere and intake of

166
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017

TABLE 3. SUMMARY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE MALAYSIAN OIL PALM INDUSTRY, 2017 AND 2016
Difference (a-b)
2017 (a) 2016 (b) Volume/
value %
Planted area (ha)
Malaysia 5 811 145 5 737 985 73 160 1.3
Peninsular Malaysia 2 708 413 2 679 502 28 911 1.1
Sabah 1 546 904 1 551 714 -4 810 -0.3
Sarawak 1 555 828 1 506 769 49 059 3.3
Crude palm oil production (t)
Malaysia 19 919 331 17 319 177 2 600 154 15.0
Peninsular Malaysia 10 575 920 8 886 638 1 689 282 19.0
Sabah 5 215 345 4 847 253 368 092 7.6
Sarawak 4 128 066 3 585 286 542 780 15.1
Closing stocks (t)
Crude palm oil 1 669 196 877 082 792 114 90.3
Processed palm oil 1 062 897 789 591 273 306 34.6
Total palm oil stocks (t) 2 732 093 1 666 673 1 065 420 63.9
Export (t)
Palm oil 16 559 957 16 045 957 514 000 3.2
Palm kernel oil 967 465 923 097 44 369 4.8
Palm kernel cake 2 206 657 2 213 847 -7 190 -0.3
Oleochemicals 2 774 235 2 757 756 16 479 0.6
Biodiesel 235 291 83 581 151 711 2.8 folds
Finished products 406 270 489 071 -82 800 -16.9
Other palm products 824 650 780 832 43 818 5.6
Total exports (t) 23 974 526 23 294 140 680 386 2.9
Export revenue (RM million)
Palm oil 46 124.76 41 442.91 4 681.85 11.3
Palm kernel oil 5 774.28 5 095.81 678.48 13.3
Palm kernel cake 927.21 838.36 88.85 10.6
Oleochemicals 20 395.25 16 838.24 3 557.01 21.1
Other palm products 4 626.88 3 706.84 920.04 24.8
Total revenue (RM million) 77 848.39 67 922.16 9 926.22 14.6
Import (t)
Palm oil 556 095 415 414 140 681 33.9
Palm kernel oil 182 106 143 436 38 671 27.0
Price (RM t-1)
Fresh fruit bunches (mill gate) 606.00 594.00 12.00 2.0
Crude palm oil (local delivered) 2 783.00 2 653.00 130.00 4.9
Palm kernel (ex-mill) 2 536.00 2 611.00 -75.00 -2.9
Crude palm kernel oil (local delivered) 5 325.00 5 492.50 -167.50 -3.0
RBD palm oil (FOB) 2 880.00 2 710.50 169.50 6.3
RBD palm olein (FOB) 2 953.50 2 769.50 184.00 6.6
RBD palm stearin (FOB) 2 799.50 2 650.50 149.00 5.6
Palm fatty acid distillate (FOB) 2 733.00 2 462.50 270.50 11.0
Oil extraction rate (%)
Malaysia 19.72 20.18 -0.46 -2.3
Peninsular Malaysia 19.21 19.76 -0.55 -2.8
Sabah 20.60 21.11 -0.51 -2.4
Sarawak 19.98 20.02 -0.04 -0.2
Fresh fruit bunches yield (t ha-1)
Malaysia 17.89 15.91 1.98 12.4
Peninsular Malaysia 18.70 15.77 2.93 18.6
Sabah 18.35 17.10 1.25 7.3
Sarawak 16.13 14.86 1.27 8.5
Note: FFB - fresh fruit bunches. RBD - refined, bleached and deodourised. FOB - freight on board.
Source: MPOB (2017); Department of Statistics, Malaysia.

167
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
sunflower oil. The increases by 1.9% to China and
13.8% to Vietnam, and 15.5% to Pakistan and 3.4% to
Turkey, were due to lower import of soyabean and
rapeseed, respectively for crushing. The Philippines
recorded 20.3% import increase due to lower supply
of domestic coconut oil.
PKO exports also increased by 4.8% to 0.97
million tonnes (Table 3) in 2017 due to higher
demand from China, Brazil and India. As in the
previous year, the EU was still the major export
market for PKO with 0.25 million tonnes (26.0%
of total exports), followed by China 0.17 million
tonnes (17.5%) and Turkey 0.08 million tonnes
(8.0%). Besides, exports of palm-based oleochemical
products increased slightly by 0.6% to 2.77 million
tonnes in 2017 due to stronger demand from China
and USA. Nevertheless, the EU maintained as the
major importer with 0.45 million tonnes (16.2%
of total exports), followed by China, 0.44 million
tonnes (15.9%); USA, 0.31 million tonnes (11.1%)
and Japan, 0.23 million tonnes (8.5%). The major
palm-based oleochemical products exported in 2017
were fatty acids at 0.99 million tonnes (35.7%); fatty
alcohol, 0.58 million tonnes (20.9%); methyl ester,
0.44 million tonnes (15.8%); glycerine, 0.40 million
tonnes (14.5%) and soap noodles, 0.34 million tonnes
(12.1%).
Exports of palm kernel cake (PKC) in 2017
declined slightly by 0.3% to 2.207 million tonnes
(Table 3) due to lower demand from the EU (reduced
by 28.6%). New Zealand was the largest importer
with 0.65 million tonnes (29.4% of total exports)
followed by the EU, 0.48 million tonnes (21.9%);
South Korea, 0.34 million tonnes (15.4%); Pakistan,
0.30 million tonnes (13.6%) and China, 0.17 million
tonnes (7.6%). All in all, these countries imported
87.9% of Malaysia’s PKC in 2017. Palm biodiesel
exports were up by two-fold from 83 581 t in 2016 to
235 291 t in 2017. Table 3 summarises the performance
of the Malaysian oil palm industry in 2017 (MPOB,
2017).
R&D FOCUS AREAS IN 2017
Increased Productivity
Changes in upstream. Among the transformative
research that has a clear transcending effect on oil
palm productivity is mechanisation. The industry
would benefit from mechanisation technologies
to reduce the dependence on human labour and
issues associated with labour shortage for oil
palm harvesting. Mechanisation is also important
to reduce time and energy. Cantas, a man-held
motorised harvesting tool has significantly increased
productivity while reducing labour dependency
(Jelani et al., 2016). Oil palm loose fruit separating
machine uses vibration and airstream to effectively
168
separate thrash (98.9%) from loose fruits (Khalid
and Shuib, 2017).
In line with utilisation of renewable energy
sources as part of sustainable agriculture effort, an
integrated solar photovoltaic electric vehicle (EV)
in oil palm farm mechanisation was developed
(Azwan et al., 2017). Spraying herbicide using EV
was more cost-effective compared to traditional
knapsack spraying system apart from being a
greener technology which could be advantageous
for operational cost reduction, productivity increase
and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation. Improved
planting materials with specific altered phenotypic
characteristics such as low stem height and long
stalk would facilitate deployment of mechanisation
technologies (Kushairi et al., 2017).
Agriculture through large scale mono-cropping
deliberately introduces changes in the existing
environment exposing the crop to serious attacks
by pests and diseases. Among the pest intrusions,
bagworms, known as the leaf-eating pest, remain the
most economically important in Malaysia (Norman
and Basri, 2007). Research has been dedicated to
controlling this pest using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
and other forms of pheromone trapping through
integrated pest management (Mohd Najib et al.,
2017; Noorhazwani et al., 2017). These technologies
provide a sustainable approach in addressing and
managing the issue.
Oil palm cultivation spreads across four
continents and diseases affecting the crop are
confined according to the region where it is planted
(Sundram and Intan-Nur, 2017). In Southeast Asia,
Ganoderma, once known to be an aging palms’
problem, has gradually become a serious threat
to the oil palm industry. The white rot fungus
infects and gradually cripples the productive
lifespan of the palm if left untreated. The success
in reducing the disease incidences largely depends
on the implementation of integrated Ganoderma
management that combines cultural practices
coupled with biological and chemical controls
(Idris et al., 2016) along with reliable early detection
tools. Precision agriculture for the early detection
of Ganoderma will be the best way forward to assist
in mitigating and managing the disease effectively.
Early success of this technology has been realised
through the studies of Izzuddin et al. (2017) and
Ahmadi et al. (2017) detailing the potential use
of the technology in field. Additionally, as a long-
term strategy of controlling the disease through
green technologies, we could envisage the potential
use of various biocontrol agents in controlling the
disease as part of the comprehensive integrated
Ganoderma management strategy (Angel et al., 2017;
Kamaruddin et al., 2017; Naidu et al., 2017).
Breeding oil palm for disease resistance has
been an important goal with increasing setting up of
in-house screening facilities for oil palm germplasm
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
population. The successful identification of four
Ganoderma resistance loci in oil palm provided
an important milestone for the oil palm varieties
selection with potential Ganoderma resistance (Tisné
et al., 2017). This development will certainly set a
new perspective in the screening process. Moving
on with fundamental research, work by Mercière
et al. (2017) through spatial autocorrelation further
sparked the role of spore dispersal in the spread of
the deadly disease. There is an absolute urgency
in proving the role of spores as it involves the
potential change of practices in estate to reduce the
predisposing effect of spores.
A subtle change in climate has already influenced
the FFB yield production. It is predicted that climate
change may lead to the emergence of new pests and
diseases (Sundram and Intan-Nur, 2017). Possibility
exists for their increases with pathogen evolution
and interaction with susceptible host. Bearing this
in mind, a biosecurity alert took place four years
ago following the catastrophic devastation of bud
rot disease witnessed by the South American oil
palm industry. This was due to the fact that the
causal agent reported for the disease was also a local
indigenous pathogen affecting other commodity
crops in Malaysia; Phytophthora palmivora. Thus,
various research activities were conducted to assess
the susceptibility of local oil palm, resulting from
negative pathogenicity on local palm (Intan-Nur et
al., 2017). The findings increase the risk and place
pressure in tightening the potential pathways that
may introduce the pathogen through biosecurity.
On the other hand, a new genetically different
invasive haplotype of coconut rhinoceros beetle
Guam (CRB-G) reported in Port Moresby, O’ahu
and Honiara, is currently causing fear among the
coconut and oil palm growers (Marshall et al., 2017).
What is even more alarming is the fact that the pest
cannot be controlled by its natural known control
agent, Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV). This calls
for a vigilant improvement of the existing biosecurity
policies to avoid unnecessary introduction of the
pest to this part of the world.
The rapid expansion of oil palm cultivation in
Southeast Asia in the last few decades also witnessed
the conversion of marginal land areas, such as peat
for oil palm cultivation. This has clearly sparked
international attention considering the fact that the
largest biological carbon sink reservoir in the world
is being disturbed. The issue continued to receive
international scrutiny and backlashing by scientific
communities and non-governmental organisations
questioning on the level of sustainability practices
and its consequences to ecosystem and people.
Although peat cultivation in Malaysia only comprises
13% with the remaining cultivated in mineral soil
(Hashim et al., 2017), it is important to identify the
downside of peat cultivation and knowledge gaps.
Realising the significance in addressing the above, a
169
systematic review by Dislich et al. (2017) highlighting
the impact of oil palm expansion against forest (as
reference) identified 14 critical ecosystem functions
among which 11 showing a net decrease. The study
also listed research gaps, mitigation options and
recommendations on the simultaneous improvement
of one or more ecosystems. Additionally, some case
studies have also reported effects of peat cultivation
on biodiversity and impact of climate change such
as El Nino (Itoh et al., 2017; Qie et al., 2017; Siti et
al., 2017). Malaysia has been championing research
on increasing yield and reducing expansion to
new lands which reinforces its role in protecting
and preserving the existing peat ecosystem and
therefore has taken steps to improve the converted
peat cultivation through proven recommendations
(e.g. drainage and upstream hydrology). Aside
from addressing the public perception on oil palm
planted on peat (Hashim et al., 2017), more studies
are required on investigating potential greenhouse
gas emissions due to anthropogenic activities and
peat conversion.
Biotechnological advancement. Essentially, crop
yield improvement is the main thrust area for the
agriculture sector and that includes the oil palm. Its
urgency is further fuelled by the projected growth of
global population to a staggering 9.7 billion by 2050,
leading to a need to double global fat production to
meet the additional caloric requirement. It is now
common knowledge that to keep pace with this
growing demand, the more sustainable alternative
would be to increase productivity on existing planted
areas, whilst being mindful of minimising the
negative effects in the quest to achieve these goals
(Ehrlich and Harte, 2015). In reality, agricultural
production is experiencing lower yields due to
climate disruption and crop quality is threatened by
loss of pollinators and increasing atmospheric CO2.
Deterioration of soil health from erosion, salinisation
and nutrient depletion as well as the limited water
resource are the growing concerns of agriculture.
Therefore, to effectively reduce pressure on land
whilst increasing yields, a thorough understanding
of factors influencing oil palm yields is required to
determine the scope to increase productivity. In this
aspect, yield gap analysis which is a tool commonly
used to estimate the upper limit of productivity
per hectare of the palm or its potential yield in a
given condition to resolve yield-determining, yield-
limiting, and yield-reducing factors of the oil palm.
By closing the yield gaps, it is envisaged that global
production will increase without further expansion
of land (Woittiez et al., 2017).
Aside from addressing external factors
to improve productivity, alternatively crop
improvement can be achieved through breeding.
However, conventional breeding especially for a
perennial such as oil palm generally takes a long
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
time (approximately 19 years per cycle of phenotypic
selection) to realise any genetic gain per unit time
and cost (Wong and Bernado, 2008). Therefore, if
there are new and available technologies that can
speed up breeding, this would put oil palm in better
stead. The simulation exercise by Wong and Bernado
(2008) highlighted the superiority of genome-wide
or genomic selection over phenotypic or marker
assisted recurrent selection (MARS) methods. The
advantage of genomic selection (GS) lies in the fact
that predictions of breeding and genotypic values
are made based on the combination of marker and
phenotypic data (and where available, pedigree
information too). This helps to increase the genetic
gain of complex traits per unit time and cost (Bhat
et al., 2016). To date, reports on the application of
GS on various crops have been on the rise. Recently,
Kwong et al. (2017) demonstrated with exceptional
accuracy the power of GS in selecting effective
markers targeting desired traits in the oil palm.
These markers were used to construct a predictive
model associated to the desired trait from a training
population with known genotypic and phenotypic
information. This enables the genomic estimated
breeding value (GEBV) to be determined for its
subsequent use in selection of the best performing
progenies. Similarly, the calculated GEBV can
also be used to select for best parents. Besides GS,
Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) has also
been widely used in linking quantitative trait loci
(QTL) to key agronomic traits which would lead
to the identification of candidate genes associated
to these traits (Cao et al., 2015; Maizura et al., 2017).
Maizura et al. (2017) reported the first GWAS and GS
study for a germplasm, in particular from Angola.
Many studies have now shown that both GWAS
and GS working in tandem have been effective
in developing superior varieties (Minamikawa
et al., 2017). This has motivated Li et al. (2017a) to
develop an efficient unified model combining both
methods as GWAS improves genomic prediction
accuracy, while GS increases mapping precision and
minimises the rate of false positives of GWAS.
Despite the increasing popularity of genome-
wide screening, QTL mapping is still widely used. A
recent paper by Tisné et al. (2017) revealed four loci
identified as Ganoderma disease resistant by using a
multi-parental population of oil palm. Incidentally,
merger of both QTL mapping approach and GWAS
had proven to be beneficial as QTL data was further
improved (Sonah et al., 2014; He et al., 2017; Wen et
al., 2017).
There have been huge developments in the
‘omics’ front of late other than genomics. The
information generated from these other ‘omics’
approaches such as transcriptomics, epigenomics,
proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics have
provided the added enhancement towards
improving crop performance and higher genetic
170
gains (Emon, 2016). Teh et al. (2017) provided a very
comprehensive review on the contribution of the
‘omic’-es towards strategically improving yields in
oil crops. The article stresses on the need to study
beyond classical trait selection, e.g. oil biosynthesis
and fruit development to name a few, but to expand
into areas such as carbon assimilation, stress
response, nutrient uptake and water use. Some
examples of research that further add value to oil
palm’s ‘big data’ are Jin et al. (2017) on hybrid vigour,
Tan et al. (2017a) for proteomics in tissue culture and
Ho et al. (2017) on microRNA related to flowering. To
deal with the ‘data tsunami’ from all these research
efforts, good bioinformatics support is critical. In
this aspect, Chan et al. (2017a) developed a pipeline
for gene prediction for the oil palm which could also
be a good resource for other related crops.
Recently, poor fruit set in oil palm has become
more apparent in East Malaysia especially in peat
areas. Seasonal bouts of poor (10%-20%) fruit set
could be caused by the dwindling population of
pollinating weevil due to excessive rain, absence
of sufficient male flowers and infection with
parasitic nematodes (Rao and Law, 1998). They
recommended a minimum of two male palms per
hectare in plantations with a high sex ratio in order
to provide sufficient supply of pollen and maintain
weevil populations. The article by Li et al. (2017b)
is probably the first report whereby a molecular
approach is taken to better understand the current
situation. The gene EgMYB4, which is a transcription
factor involved in methylchavicol production in
flowers or better known as estragole, belonging
to the phenylpropanoid pathway was identified.
Phenylpropenes belong to a class of volatile organic
compounds produced by plants to attract pollinators
as well as for defence purposes. They share the same
pathway with lignin, flavonoid, phenolic acid and
stilbene production (Liu et al., 2015). It is suggested
that EgMYB4 restricts biosynthesis of lignin in
oil palm flowers thus redirecting the carbon flux
towards the phenylpropene pathway.
One of the areas where there is much
anticipation in the years ahead is definitely genome
editing. Interestingly, date palm researchers have
openly acknowledged plans of applying clustered
regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats
or better known as CRISPR/Cas9 in their crop
improvement programme. In their recent review,
Sattar et al. (2017) are encouraged by the potential of
this technology to be the way forward for date palm
considering the limitations faced by the crop. This
presents a good reference for its close cousins, the
oil palm and coconut to follow suit. With the recent
successful regeneration of oil palm from protoplasts
(Masani et al., 2013), early evidence of gene transfer
into oil palm protoplasts (Masani et al., 2014) and
development in oil palm genome studies (Low et al.,
2017), it was proposed that genome editing could be
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
applied to oil palm to genetically improve oil palm
more effectively than being carried out now using
the genetic transformation methods (Subhi et al.,
2017).
When addressing issues pertaining to climate
change, developing planting materials that are able
to weather these changes are crucial to safeguard the
posterity and sustainability of the crop (Zulkifli et al.,
2017a). One of the major traits that is being targeted
is drought tolerance or water-use efficiency. Both Li
et al. (2017c) and Hughes et al. (2017) reported that
reduced stomatal density seems to confer improved
drought tolerance without compromising yield in
both wheat and barley, respectively. This would be a
potential area for oil palm to explore.
Smallholders involvement. In Malaysia, two
categories of oil palm smallholders, the ISH and
organised smallholders, have played significant
contribution to the oil palm industry. The main
challenge of ISH is low productivity affecting their
socio-economic situation. Over the last decade, the
oil palm yield produced by ISH was always below
the national average. For example, in 2017, the
average yield for ISH was 17.19 t ha-1 which was
slightly lower compared to the national average
of 17.89 t ha-1 (MPOB, 2017). This lower yield was
mainly due to lack of proper oil palm management.
Besides good agricultural practices and fertiliser
management, good planting materials is also the
main factor influencing the potential FFB yield
by smallholders. Selection of high quality oil
palm seedlings for planting is a crucial part in the
whole period of oil palm management activities.
Establishing extension and support services
for ISH is crucial, e.g. in Malaysia as one main
activity since 1993. Recent relevant knowledge and
technologies related to oil palm production have
been disseminated to enhance the skills of ISH in oil
palm management. Furthermore, adoption of any
oil palm technologies, farm practices and oil palm
production by ISH need to be monitored closely.
Fatin et al. (2017) showed that current extension
activities implemented are able to create awareness
among smallholders in implementing good
agricultural practices. The study also suggested
that the current extension and monitoring programs
should be continued.
Farm Book Record to monitor oil palm
management activities by the ISH has been
introduced to ease implementation of extension
services. Although some smallholders have
maintained the Farm Book Record, not all
information required by the extension agents is
recorded (Parthiban et al., 2017a). Most of the ISH
provide inconsistent and inaccurate information,
especially in actual production of FFB, thus hindering
effective extension services by governmental
bodies. Currently, no specific system is in place to
171
capture records on FFB yields by ISH in Malaysia.
Therefore, a new database system known as Oil
Palm Smallholder Information Card was introduced
in order to capture FFB transactions by smallholders
(Partiban et al., 2017a). However, this system needs
to be further improved for effective tracking of FFB
yields and transactions by including an online web-
based portal for data entry.
Assessment of level of knowledge of ISH on
important oil palm management skills is crucial to
gather sufficient information for planning effective
and suitable training program for the smallholders.
Parthiban et al. (2017b) conducted such assessment
on Basal Stem Rot disease caused by the fungus
Ganoderma and the control practices. It was found
that majority of ISH are ignorant on the key oil palm
disease, Ganoderma. Therefore, suitable training and
courses are to be repeatedly conducted to enhance
their skills in order to reduce infestation and spread
of this disease. We anticipate more such similar
studies to be conducted relating to important oil
palm management skills.
Following initiatives to increase the income of
oil palm smallholders, the government encouraged
smallholders to be involved in cooperative activities
by establishing Sustainable Oil Palm Growers
Cooperative (KPSM) in 2011. Its establishment is
hoped to be able to solve problems faced by ISH such
as lower offered FFB prices from fruit dealers, high
cost of agricultural inputs, lower incomes, FFB yields
and quality. In addition, via KPSM, smallholders
are encouraged to manage their own requirements
among members to elevate income focusing on
oil palm business activities. There were obstacles
at the initial stages as the establishment was the
first of its kind introduced in Malaysia. A study by
Nazirah et al. (2017) showed that nine factors which
significantly influenced ISH in making decision
as a member of the KPSM were gender, non-farm
occupation, knowledge of members, community
or society involvement, household income,
commitment, community perception, oil palm
management requirement and communication.
The social contribution from such establishment
was also determined (Sarmila et al., 2017) showing
smallholders benefiting from networking,
increased involvement in oil palm activities and
job opportunities, and improved managerial skill
among the members in the community.
Replanting programme using good planting
materials has been proven to increase the
competitiveness of Malaysian oil palm (Fauziah et
al., 2017). The programme - Replanting and New
Planting Assistance Scheme - has been initiated
for ISH since 2011 under the 10th Malaysian Plan.
The scopes of assistance include land preparation,
oil palm seedlings, fertiliser and other agricultural
inputs (Zulkifli et al., 2017b). The scheme has
created opportunity for farmers to fully maximise
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
land use by implementing crops or livestock
integration with oil palm. There are several types of
crops recommended for integration with oil palm,
however only a few, i.e. pineapple, papaya, banana
and yams, that have potential to increase incomes
are chosen by smallholders. More importantly, the
selected crops must not affect the oil palm yields.
Salak palm is another crop that has recently been
identified for integration with oil palm (Norkaspi
and Raja Zulkifli, 2017). Based on survey to recipients
of crops and livestock integration programme, they
prefer crop to livestock integration (Zaimah et al.,
2017). Most of the recipients (92%) prefer planting
banana to other crops mainly because it is non-
seasonal and has a better demand. It is estimated
that smallholders who continue their integration
activities will have a potential monthly income
exceeding RM 4000.
Biomass and Bioenergy
Palm biodiesel. Palm biodiesel has been used as an
alternative fuel. Of the global biodiesel production
of 35.19 million tonnes in 2017, 30.6% was palm
biodiesel (Oil World, 2018). In Malaysia, 720 410 t
of palm biodiesel were produced last year of which
235 291 t were exported mainly to the EU, 358 586 t used
for local B7 blending and the remaining 126 533 t used
as oleochemicals (MPOB, 2018; Unnithan, 2018). The
production technologies of palm biodiesel continue
to be researched. Recently, the traditionally used
(homogeneous) catalyst for transesterification of
PO, NaOH was replaced by calcium diglyceroxide,
a heterogeneous catalyst, with Na2CO3 added as
a precipitating agent for the unreacted Ca2+ ions.
This approach yielded up to 94% conversion,
producing good quality biodiesel (Pannilawithana
and Pathirana, 2017). The conversion of PO and
PKO into biodiesel via transesterification using free
Aspergillus niger lipase was optimised via Response
Surface Methodology (RSM) (Kareem et al., 2017).
High biodiesel yields were achieved (>90% for PO
and ~90% for PKO) at 40°C, 3:1 methanol-oil molar
ratio and 5–7.5% enzyme. The resulting biodiesel
fuel properties were comparable with the American
(ASTM D6751) and European (EN 14214) standards;
but, process efficiency and economic viability need
to be further improved. Lipase in fermented solids
derived from bagasse enriched with emulsified
soyabean oil was used to catalyse solvent-free
ethanolysis of PO (Galeano et al., 2017). A 90%
maximum conversion was achieved using 4.5:1
ethanol-PO molar ratio with ethanol added to the
shake flask in three steps during 48 hr. In contrast,
a packed-bed reactor (5.5:1 ethanol-PO molar ratio,
4-step ethanol addition) yielded 89% conversion
in 30 hr. The regenerated catalyst achieved 66%
conversion after the 5th cycle successive 30 hr run
in the reactor. The potential environmental impact
172
of palm-based biodiesel production via life cycle
assessments can vary greatly, depending on model
choices (consequential and or attributional), co-
product utilisation, technology improvements, and
land use change (direct and indirect) (Prapaspongsa
et al., 2017).
Malaysia is currently implementing a mandatory
B7 national biodiesel programme (Jalil et al., 2017). To
support uses of higher palm biodiesel-based blends
in the transportation sector, testing on compression
ignition engine using: (1) biodiesel (B100), (2) diesel-
palm biodiesel blend (B20), and (3) diesel-PO blend
(PO20) at zero to full loads was conducted (Gad et
al., 2017). Blends of diesel with palm biodiesel up
to 20% show reasonable performance and exhaust
emissions compared to petroleum diesel. Blending
palm biodiesel with pentanol (10%-20%), the
latter acting as an oxygenated additive, reduced
exhaust emissions of CO, HC, NOx and smoke
(Radhakrishnan et al., 2017). A systematic review on
palm biodiesel’s current production issues, benefits
and constraints for its implementation and specific
use in diesel engines, along with its ability to meet
stringent regulations and standards enforced in EU
and USA was conducted (Mat Yasin et al., 2017).
Biodiesel production from PO via non-
traditional approaches was explored too. A 5-wt.%
bioadsorbent from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB)
was able to remove 89.7% residual methanol, 81.7%
water, 36.7% free fatty acid and 98.6% potassium
from waste cooking oil biodiesel under continuous
stirring at 500 rpm for 1 hr (Ahmad Farid et al.,
2017). The purification method is cost-effective and
the derived biodiesel meets the European Biodiesel
Standard (EN14214). In addition, hydrogenated palm
oil (HPO) was catalytically cracked via pyrolysis at
350°C-500°C to obtain a long-chain hydrocarbon-
like diesel (Xu et al., 2017). The spectroscopic
elucidation of the product revealed a pyrolysis
pathway involving fatty acids deoxygenation and
decarboxylation. The study showed that HPO is a
better bioresource compared to other PO pyrolysis
feedstocks.
A new marine strain, Rhodococcus sp. YHY01
accumulates triacylglycerols and is able to produce
fatty acids using oil palm biomass hydrolysate
as carbon source (Bhatia et al., 2017). The process
avoided various steps required to remove inhibitory
compounds commonly employed in conventional
bioconversion of lignocelluloses into biofuels, and
enhanced biomass and fatty acid productivity
compared to glucose. The biodiesel produced had
more superior fuel properties compared to algal
and petrodiesel. A microalgae species, i.e. Chlorella
vulgaris UMACC 001 has shown to exhibit high oil to
biomass ratio when cultured in 5% of an inexpensive
and carbon-rich feedstock, palm oil mill effluent
(POME) at different growth conditions (Idris et al.,
2017). The harvested and characterised microalgal oil
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
had similar characteristics to that of PO as a biodiesel
feedstock. Ahmad et al. (2017) demonstrated that
microbial oil from EFB hydrolysate is a possible
feedstock for biodiesel production by the fungus,
Mucor plumbeus. The spraying of pressurised water-
steam (3450 kPa) at 150°C onto the surface of EFB
resulted in ~94 wt.% recovery of residual CPO (Md
Yunos et al., 2017). The fatty acid composition of the
derived biodiesel was comparable to that derived
from the fresh CPO. The remaining lignocellulosic
materials possess high quality for deployment in the
production of biofuels.
Biomass pre-treatment. Oil palm biomass (from
oil palm plantations and PO milling) remains as
an attractive substrate for renewable cellulose
production (Noorshamsiana et al., 2017a). To convert
the biomass, pre-treatment is required. Palma
Medina et al. (2017) used DNA isolated from the soil
to form a novel metagenomic library of cellulases
to treat EFB. The cellulases showed possible
exoglucanase and β-glucosidase activity at pH
4-10 and 30°C-60°C. Further, oil palm frond (OPF)
was pre-treated with a mixed acid-base catalyst
(HCl:NaOH) and enzymatically saccharified to
produce >90% yield for glucose within 10 hr with
~85% digestibility for 72 hr (Jung et al., 2017). The
alkaline H2O2 pre-hydrolysis followed by HCl
hydrolysis of OPF yielded microcrystalline cellulose
with an increased crystallinity (Owolabi et al., 2017).
Sulphite-based pre-treatment was employed to
enhance enzymatic scarification by removing 38.8%
lignin and dissolving 93.9% xylose from the treated
oil palm trunk (OPT) (Noparat et al., 2017). Using an
upgraded seawater solution with 5% (w/v) NaOH,
the pre-treated EFB was more highly delignified and
possessed higher reducing sugar yields than by pre-
treatment using NaCO2 and palm kernel ash (Ismail
et al., 2017). Acetic acid was used to pre-treat palm
kernel shell (PKS) to produce an improved reducing
sugars yield of 40.4 mg g-1 biomass (Rattanaporn
et al., 2017). A two-step peracetic acid-alkaline
peroxide treatment of EFB fibre removed >98% of
lignin at mild temperatures (20°C-35°C), resulting
in nearly 210-fold glucose recovery compared with
that of untreated biomass (Palamae et al., 2017).
Solid-state fermentation of EFB using a novel
Aspergillus niger strain isolated from oil palm
plantation produced xylanase as a potential
hydrolytic enzyme to convert xylan to xylo-
oligosacharides and pentose (Ajijolakewu et al.,
2017). Through sequential dilute acid-microwave
alkali pre-treatment, the treated EFB can serve
as a potential cheap substrate for succinic acid
production via simultaneous saccharification and
fermentation using Actinobacillus Succinogenes
(Akhtar and Idris, 2017). Total glucose yield
(enzymatic saccharification yield x pre-treatment
solid recovery yield) served as the single response
173
variable instead of multiple response variables in
all other studies to optimise pre-treatment of EFB
through RSM (Tye et al., 2017).
Recently, ionic liquids (IL) have been explored
in pre-treatment of oil palm biomass. For example,
a methylimidazolium-based IL was combined
with InCl3 catalyst to depolymerise EFB and
mesocarp fibre (MF) for subsequent ethyl levulinate
conversion (Tiong et al., 2017). The IL-based catalytic
system can be recycled three times. The IL- and
alkali-pre-treatment led to fractionation of cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin from oil palm biomass. IL
was recovered and reused for four cycles (Mohtar
et al., 2017). Deep eutectic solvent has shown
potential successive in swelling and dissolving
OPT (Abdulmalek et al., 2017; Zulkefli et al., 2017c).
In addition, divalent (CuCl2) and trivalent (FeCl3)
inorganic salts assisted by H2O2 and sodium
persulphate were effectively used for recovery of
xylose from the stalks of OPF (Loow et al., 2017).
New technologies such as one-pot oxidative-
hydrolysis employing Cr(NO3)3 metal salt (Chen
et al., 2017) and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-
oxy-mediated oxidation and sonication (Rohaizu
and Wan Rosli, 2017) were effective for production
and isolation of nanocelluloses from EFB. The
nanocelluloses had higher crystallinity index,
and exhibited high thermal stability in composite
material synthesis. The physico-chemical properties
of nanocellulose prepared via one-pot process were
comparable to products isolated via conventional
multistep purification approach (namely dewaxing,
chlorite bleaching process, alkalisation and acid
hydrolysis). The isolated nanocelluloses are being
converted into biofuels and biomaterials.
Lignocellulosic biofuels. The potential of oil palm
biomass as a bioenergy source was intensively
researched. Ozturk et al. (2017) compared the
biomass energy generation in Malaysia and Turkey
in terms of policy, strategy, technology efficiency
and population density. Although both countries
are rich in biomass resources, they have different
fundamental issues to tackle in future bioeconomy
development. Separately, various oil palm biomass
types in Malaysia were assessed for their important
fuel and other physico-chemical properties, and
their resource data in totality were provided as a
reference for commercial bioresource exploitation
(Loh, 2017). The huge potential biomass energy
from oil palm and other residues in Sabah, Malaysia
was estimated at ~267 179 818 GJ yr-1 (Suzuki et al.,
2017), of which oil palm alone contributed to 263
635 079 GJ yr-1 (98.7%) or 2288 MW power at 25%
power plant efficiency and 8000 hr yr-1 operation,
i.e. about 3.8 times of total electricity supply in 2010
in Sabah. In Sarawak, Malaysia, the majority of oil
palm growers agreed that utilisation of EFB and
POME would bring greater sustainability impacts in
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
oil palm plantations compared to PKS and MF but
were uncertain on their commercial values (Phang
and Lau, 2017).
A simulated model of a combined heat and
power (CHP) plant in a palm oil mill fueled with
biomass wastes was constructed to optimise energy
generation to mimic conventional CHP plant (Wu et
al., 2017). Three different fuel combinations: (1) EFB
and PKS, (2) MF co-fired with biogas, and (3) PKS,
EFB and biogas with preheaters, were evaluated. All
three were able to produce enough electrical power
and heat (steam) to meet the energy demand for PO
processing, with potential extra energy for exporting
to nearby areas. In order to harness most of the
economic and environmental benefits from EFB,
a retrofitted system that co-fired hydrothermally
treated EFB (at 0%, 10%, 25%, and 50% mass) with
coal was simulated through a computational fluid
dynamics model (Darmawan et al., 2017). The
study validates that 10%-25% mass fraction is the
most preferred co-firing condition. The proposed
integrated co-firing system shows very low energy
consumption for feedstocks preparation with a
net ~40% power generation efficiency. Besides, an
energy-efficient integrated system incorporating
EFB gasification, POME digestion and additional
organic Rankine cycle was established in a palm
oil mill to fully use both the solid and liquid wastes
for power generation (Aziz et al., 2017). A total of
8.3 MW power was generated at a 30.4% power
generation efficiency. The syngas produced can
be used for biomass drying, biogas for generating
both electricity and heat and the recovered unused
heat for electricity generation. The sustainability
of grid-connected oil palm biomass renewable
energy industry in Malaysia was evaluated based
on resource supply, energy system efficiency and
electricity interconnectivity from the participating
mills to the national grid (Umar et al., 2017). A
workable framework incorporating biomass policy
and industry roadmap is required to harmonise
the upstream and downstream PO processing for a
circular economy development.
Besides thermal-chemical conversion such as
pyrolysis, more advanced biomass-to-bioenergy
technology was employed. Oil palm fibre subjected
to thermoliquefaction using supercritical ethanol in
a semi-continuous process produced 56% to 84%
of bio-oil yields dependent on temperature used
(Oliveira et al., 2017). At lower temperature (300°C),
sugar derivatives are the major bio-oil component,
while alcohols and phenolic are the major compounds
present at higher temperatures. In addition, PKS
underwent thermochemical liquefaction using sub-
and supercritical water to produce 6.5-15.6 wt % bio-
oil at 330°C-390°C (Chan et al., 2017b). As expected,
phenolic compounds were the major component of
bio-oils for all reaction conditions investigated. One
interesting finding was that the lignin (rather than
174
cellulose) in the oil palm biomass was fractured and
hydrolysed/liquefied into aromatic compounds
when longer residence time was applied. These
results imply that biomass having high lignin
content may yield more bio-oil than reported in the
literature. The other thermochemical liquefaction
approach using EFB is catalysis by Fe3O4 or H2 in the
presence of sub- and supercritical tetralin yielding
91.8%, and 97.1% conversion at 400°C, respectively
(Koriakin et al., 2017). The n-Dodecane as solvent
produced >77% conversion but at >10 MPa pressure
using the same catalytic approach. Tetralin is better
in liquefying EFB into aromatic derivatives whereas
some aliphatic components form in the other system.
Under supercritical hydrothermal liquefaction
assisted by 1.0 wt.% metal oxide catalysts (CaO,
MnO, CeO2 and La2O3), EFB produced ~1.4 times
higher maximum relative bio-oil yield than that
without catalyst at 390°C, 25 MPa, and 1 hr (Yim et
al., 2017).
A group of researchers optimised the production
of PKS-char, EFB-char and palm oil sludge-biochar
via pyrolysis in a stainless steel bed reactor placed
in a horizontal tubular furnace (Lee et al., 2017a,b).
The biochars are suitable for biofuels and for heavy
metal removal. Kabir et al. (2017) pyrolysed MF and
OPF in a slow-heating fixed-bed reactor, producing
bio-oils that are suitable as fuels and chemicals.
They also provided an insight into how the various
biomass characteristics could affect pyrolysis for
producing high-grade biofuel and biochemical
precursors (Kabir and Hameed, 2017). EFB-biochar
and rice husk biochar were produced by Yavari et
al. (2017). The former possessed better sorption
capacities/efficiency in removal of polar herbicides
due to the presence of higher amount of oxygen-
containing functional groups. The evolution of the
basic physico-chemical characteristics (chemical
composition, functional groups, pore structure and
crystallographic structure) of PKS biochar from
250°C to 750°C was systematically investigated,
providing useful information for high value-
addition of the char (Ma et al., 2017).
In order to optimise EFB utilisation, a
mathematical model for EFB multi-production
supply chain was established to serve as a
supportive tool to provide economic potential for
investments (Abdulrazik et al., 2017). A mixed spent
bleaching earth (SBE) and EFB (30:70 wt/wt) yielded
biomass briquettes with acceptable quality as a solid
biofuel (Srisang et al., 2017). Biomass pellets from
oil palm leaves and OPF, para-rubber leaves litter
and branches and their blends were exploited, too
(Wattana et al., 2017). The hydrothermally treated,
water-washed and pelletised EFB possessed
higher ignition temperatures with a more uniform
combustion profile as a solid fuel (Zaini et al., 2017).
A life cycle impact assessment study indicated
that the main environmental impacts of EFB pellet
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
production are fossil depletion, climate change
and particulate matters emission due to heavy
dependence on grid-connected electricity; hence,
upgrading the pellet quality and reducing the
associated environmental impacts are required
to make the production competitive (Nasrin et al.,
2017a).
Torrefaction was also studied for oil palm
biomass thermal degradation as solid biofuels.
Sukiran et al. (2017) evaluated various torrefaction
technologies for their effect on fuel characteristics of
oil palm solid wastes. Torrefaction of EFB in a fixed-
bed tubular reactor via an O2- and CO2-enriched
wood pellet combustion gas and higher temperature
showed lower solid yield than that in N2 gas,
and higher calorific value (Uemura et al., 2017). A
kinetic model for EFB torrefaction at 240°C-270°C
was established to predict the anhydrous biomass
weight loss during thermal degradation (Mohd
Harun et al., 2017). The same group also established
a model correlation to predict the higher heating
value (HHV) of torrefied oil palm biomass based on
proximate analysis (Abdul Wahid et al., 2017).
Although thermal processing of oil palm biomass
via microwave technology has been thoroughly
studied, the fundamental understanding of
dielectric properties of biomass, which is crucial for
designing cost-effective biomass treatment systems,
is still lacking. Salema et al. (2017) provided useful
data on these properties for oil palm, rice, coconut
and sawdust. The dielectric constant and loss factor
decrease during drying and pyrolysis stages, but
increase drastically during char formation stage,
probably due to high conductivity of the char
material. In addition, the variables for microwave
pyrolysis of OPF, i.e. temperature, microwave
power and N2 flow rate, were studied, showing
correlation between H2 yield and N2 flow rate while
biochar yield is susceptible to temperature change
(Hossain et al., 2017). The optimised conditions for
maximum H2 and biochar production are: 450°C, 400
W microwave power and 955.25 cm3 min-1 N2 flow
rate. Particularly, the microwave pyrolysis of PKS
yielded a zero-sulphur biochar with 23-26 MJ kg-1
HHV which is equivalent to conventional coal as a
promising solid biofuel, pollutant adsorbent as well
as soil conditioner (Liew et al., 2018). Interestingly,
Omoriyekomwan et al. (2017) found formation of
hollow carbon nanofibres (HCNF) arranged in high
ordered carbon layers with two main tubular and
bamboo-shape structures, occurred only during
microwave pyrolysis of PKS (500°C and 600°C) and
not via other methods. The mineral matters (metallic
species) in the biomass and the temperature
difference between the surrounding particles and
particle core caused by microwave-induced heating
are believed to have facilitated their growth via
‘self-extrusion’ of volatiles through nano-sized
channels. The PKS-biochar coated with HCNF can
175
potentially remove heavy metals from wastewater.
Also, PKS produced via a microwave-assisted pre-
carbonisation system at 300°C shows high HHV
and low gaseous emission as a co-combustion solid
biofuel (Zainal et al., 2017).
Biogas from POME. POME has frequently been the
focus for bioenergy exploitation and environmental
concerns. Due to its high organic content, POME
can be detrimental if untreated and released to
the environment; in contrast, the released biogas
through anaerobic digestion (AD) of POME is
a potential energy source for CHP generation.
Malaysia demonstrated its expertise in biogas
endeavours (capture and utilisation) through a
nationwide implementation under the Economic
Transformation Programme by highlighting
important technological, financial and institutional
elements (Loh et al., 2017a). Co-firing biogas in
palm oil mill biomass boiler has shown great
potential in reduction of boiler stack opacity (~20%)
and dust and particulate concentrations (>50%)
(Nasrin et al., 2016). Cost-effective biogas capture
and its application requires a properly configured
system integrating all of the technical aspects
concerning pH, temperature, organic loading rate
(OLR), hydraulic retention time (HRT), mixing
rate, pressure, equilibrium, nutrient and microbial
activities. A system that features high biogas/
methane composition at lower HRT and OLR is
feasible (Ohimain and Izah, 2017).
Biogas productivity can be enhanced via many
different approaches. One example is integrated
ultrasonic-membrane technology (Abdurahman
et al., 2017) showing >98% overall chemical and
biological degradation of POME with its biogas
containing up to 81% methane. A two-step
thermophilic fermentation of POME under non-
sterile conditions by xylanase was able to enhance
biogas production by three-fold (Prasertsan et
al., 2017). POME inoculated with dairy manure
at pH 6.8 and 37°C in a continuously stirred tank
reactor at 10 days HRT led to a more than two-fold
increase of biogas yield and methane content; and
~45% chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction
compared to that produced in the absence of
inoculum (Krishnan et al., 2017). To further
enhance methane production, POME and EFB
were co-digested separately with sewage sludge
(chemical and biological) under liquid and solid AD
conditions, respectively (Suksong et al., 2017a). While
the former exhibited a positive synergistic increase
of methane yield (1.2%-5.7%), the latter showed a
lower yield compared to single-digestion. Microbial
inhibition occurred with an increased substrate
concentration (total solids between 6%-42%) in both
AD systems. In fact, although co-digesting POME (2
g-10 g volatile solids) using EFB size of 3.3 cm - 6 cm
showed acceptable biodegradability and methane
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
production, the resulting yield was 37% lesser than
that using POME alone (Saelor et al., 2017). The
same group of researchers further showed the great
potential of EFB, OPF and OPT in thermophilic
solid-state AD (Suksong et al., 2017b). Factors such
as feedstock-to-inoculum ratio (2:1, wt/v), carbon-
to-nitrogen mass ratio (C:N = 40:1) and total solids
(16%) greatly optimised methane yields.
POME undergoing AD in the presence of
natural microorganisms produced a mixture of H2
and methane (biohythane) that can either be used as
a chemical, or a carrier for gas-to-energy combustion
(Mamimin et al., 2017). The presence of volatile fatty
acid in POME, particularly butyric and propionic
acids, causes low methane conversion efficiency
under thermophilic conditions. The VFA mixtures
at different concentrations provide interactive
effects in influencing and inhibiting the bacteria
and archaea communities during methanogenesis.
Thus, their presence in high concentrations (>8
g litre-1) should be prevented in two-stage AD for
biohythane production. In addition, production
of H2 from pre-settled POME was improved in a
modified upflow anaerobic sludge blanket fixed film
reactor, achieving 0.31 litre H2 g-1 COD conversion
at 0.5 m hr-1 velocity and 1.7 litres per day POME
flow rate (Mohammadi et al., 2017). The POME that
underwent dilute acid pre-treatment was able to
enhance biohydrogen production via thermophilic
dark fermentation by mixed culture (Mahmod et al.,
2017).
In addition to POME, other types of oil palm
biomass are good feedstock for biohydrogen
production. Several MgO supported Ni, Cu and Zn
oxides were synthesised for catalytic gasification of
OPF in supercritical water to produce H2 (Mastuli
et al., 2017). This study showed that catalysts with
larger specific surfaces did not necessarily bring
about the highest catalytic performance due to
differentiated H2 selectivity influenced by particle
dispersion, basicity and bond strength. A two-stage
lime- and enzyme-pre-treated thermophilic process
of OPT hydrolysate produced biohydrogen and
methane (Sitthikitpanya et al., 2017). The employed
process was able to produce 2.7-fold higher sugar
yield than that of untreated OPT, with a total 83%
COD removed.
More researches have geared towards
enhancing biohydrogen from POME. For example,
photofermentation assisted by ultrasonication of
a combined POME: pulp and paper wastewater
(25:75, v/v) by Rhodobacter sphaeroides improved
biohydrogen production (Budiman et al., 2017).
Ultrasonication at a middle range of amplitude and
duration was able to improve light distribution,
hence increasing biohydrogen yield by 45%,
with a total 52% COD removal compared to the
negative control. An effective activated carbon-
based carrier/biofilm consisting of 0.44 cm3 g-1 pore
176
volume was best for adhering and colonising the
thermophilic H2 producer - Thermoanaerobacterium
thermosaccharolyticum (Jamali et al., 2017). This
biofilm was able to hydrolyse cellulosic fibre into
simple sugar in all diluted POME substrates. A newly
isolated mesophilic Bacillus anthracis strain from
POME sludge tested on synthetic substrate (yeast
and mannose) was able to produce a maximum of
2.42 mol H2 mol-1 mannose at 35°C and initial pH 6.5
(Mishra et al., 2017). Using the results, the calculated
specific H2 production potential from POME is
236 ml H2 g-1 COD. Further, 0.66 mol H2 mol-1 total
monomeric sugars is attainable at 37°C for 24 hr –
a 3.5-fold increase by an engineered Escherichia coli
compared to wild type E. coli (Taifor et al., 2017).
Lately, POME research has intensified on
integrating biogas within a palm oil mill complex
and advancing biogas into bio-compressed natural
gas (BioCNG) and biohydrogen. The world’s first
commercial 400 m3 hr-1 BioCNG plant from POME
has been established at Sungai Tengi Palm Oil Mill,
producing a >94% enriched methane content in
biogas with a high calorific value (35.95 MJ Nm-3),
similar to natural gas specifications (Nasrin et al.,
2017b). A Fuzzy-model optimisation approach was
developed to maximise the utilisation pathway and
distribution network of the PO milling co-products
(from oil palm biomass, POME up to bioCNG)
through clustering of palm oil mills for multiple-
production (Theo et al., 2017). The simulated factors
– feed-in-tariff, quota variation and transhipment
pathway of bioCNG showed that the proposed
PO processing cluster can increase mill’s annual
income. In a separate study, an optimal BioCNG
injection into natural gas grid and distribution to
potential identified areas in the Peninsular Malaysia
was assessed using the BeWhere techno-economic
model considering cost and emission minimisation
throughout the biogas supply chain (Hoo et al.,
2017). In order to make bioCNG a competitive
energy option, biogas injection stations must be
within vicinity to biogas capturing plants.
Biomaterials. Oil palm biomass can be made into
many different bioproducts besides bioenergy
applications. Magnetic biosorbents made from
sonication of a mixed EFB, EFB celluloses and kapok
fibre can be used to remove heavy metal ions in
wastewater treatment (Daneshfozoun et al., 2017).
Chitosan composite film reinforced with cellulose
from EFB performed well for cadmium ion removal
(Rahmi et al., 2017). Lignins serve as a suitable green
material for phenolic resins production (Faris et al.,
2017). Lignins fractionated from EFB via Kraft process
had better structural and thermal characteristics
than those by organosolv pulping. Lignin produced
through similar treatment on OPF and incorporated
with m-cresol showed better antioxidant activity
(Sa’don et al., 2017). PKS powder-based biosorbent
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
has the ability to remove Cu and the Cu-coated
material is a potential heterogeneous catalyst
(Kushwaha et al., 2017). Activated carbon derived
from EFB fibre is effective for urea adsorption in
wastewater treatment (Ooi et al., 2017). The fibre
can be an alternative natural acoustic material for
noise control (Or et al., 2017). Other bioproducts
developed are: (1) acetoin from MF hydrolysate
via engineered E. coli (Mohd Yusoff et al., 2017), (2)
3,4,5-trihydroxycinnamic acid (a strong antioxidant)
synthesised from POME-extracted p-coumaric
acid and caffeic acid (Pinthong et al., 2017), and (3)
bioflocculant from POME (Nurul Adela et al., 2017).
Oil palm ash, a milling by-product, can be
converted into a mesoporous lithium-doped (10
wt %) zeolite which can catalyse transesterification
of glycerol and dimethyl carbonate for glycerol
carbonate (GC yield, 98.1%) under optimised
reaction condition (Khanday et al., 2017). The
developed catalyst was capable of maintaining its
catalytic activity after five subsequent reuses. As a
highly pozzolanic material, oil palm ash and palm
oil clinker have been evaluated as a cementitious
material for concrete replacement (Thomas et al.,
2017; Karim et al., 2017). A zeolite-based adsorbent
was synthesised via two-step alkaline fusion
and hydrothermal treatment of oil palm fly ash
(Kongnoo et al., 2017). The acid-activated zeolite
shows enhancement in its CO2 adsorption capacity.
The refining by-product, SBE, either in activated
or neutral form, is a bentonite-based earth/clay
that possesses many positive attributes due to the
available active charge sites and surface functional
groups in favourable orientation for surface binding
activities (Loh et al., 2017b). These excellent physico-
chemical properties make SBE a bioactive material
for water/wastewater treatment and as biofertiliser
vital for soil amendment in agricultural applications
(Loh et al., 2013). Last but not least, residual oil
in palm pressed fibre after milling process was
recovered using aqueous enzymatic extraction,
yielding phytonutrient-rich PO (Noorshamsiana et
al., 2017b).
Regulatory requirement of POME final discharge.
In 2006, the Department of Environment (DOE),
Malaysia had imposed a more stringent law - a
stricter biological oxygen demand (BOD) of 20 ppm
- pertaining to the discharge of POME in Sarawak
and some environmentally-sensitive areas in Sabah.
In 2015, the Sarawak state government revised the
specification to 50 ppm for a three-year grace period
(personal communication). Many tertiary treatment
technologies have been researched, but the majority
are unable to meet the BOD 20 ppm final discharge
consistently (Liew et al., 2015; Zainal et al., 2017).
Conventional POME treatment with ponding and
piping systems is likely associated with meeting
but not exceeding the final discharge BOD limit set.
177
A renewed interest in understanding more deeply
about POME scale deposits at various stages of
treatment has shed light, as these materials famously
known as struvites can be an alternative source
of phosphorous mineral for fertiliser application
(Muzzammil et al., 2017).
In conventional POME tertiary treatment, many
new innovations were developed. Recent POME
polishing technologies were reviewed (Bello and
Abdul Raman, 2017). Of these, the authors foresee
the future prospect of advanced oxidation processes
such as Fenton and photocatalysis for large scale
treatment, provided that cost-effectiveness is
achieved when integrating with the existing POME
treatment technologies. The photocatalysis of diluted
POME with TiO2 and O2 supply showed >50%
overall degradation (Ng and Cheng, 2017). One
important factor in POME treatment – biosorption of
granular sludge – via a sequencing batch reactor was
modelled by investigating the oxidisable organic
matter liquid-solid mass transfer and kinetics
(Fulazzaky et al., 2017). Mass transfer of granular
sludge and role of internal packing of a hybrid
anaerobic bioreactor through dark fermentation of
POME was also studied (Zinatizadeh et al., 2017).
A microbial granule consisting of photosynthetic
pigments was grown using POME, showing good
biomass concentration, stability and sedimentation
(Najib et al., 2017).
A microbial fuel cell (MFC) was combined
with anaerobic membrane bioreactor for POME
treatment (Tan et al., 2017b). The combined system
exhibited better fouling control, overall COD
removal efficiencies and filtration performance
compared to the absence of MFC. The other new
system ‘spiral–screw dielectric barrier discharge
plasma’ reduced ~82% COD of POME, but did not
meet the required POME discharge limit (Nur et al.,
2017). An immobilised oleaginous microalgae was
used in phytoremediation of secondary POME in a
fluidised bed photobioreactor (Cheirsilp et al., 2017).
This approach eases harvesting and improves the
biomass and lipid productivity of Nannochloropsis
sp. for both renewable energy production and
tertiary treatment. Duckweed (Lemna minor) and
microalgae (Chlamydomonas incerta) were able to
treat POME partially and subsequently be used as
organic fertiliser (Kamyab et al., 2017). A synthesised
copper nanoparticles from Commelina nudiflora
extract displayed potential as a biocontrol agent for
POME treatment (Kuppusamy et al., 2017).
Interestingly, recent research shows that SBE
prepared by combined acid and heat regeneration
has promising potential in decolourising and
reducing the BOD of POME final discharge at ~70%
and ~50% removal rate, respectively though the
practicality of this approach on an industrial scale
is uncertain (Abd Majid and Che Mat, 2017). In a
separate study, pyrolysed activated carbon from
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
EFB achieved a ≥90% decrease of BOD, COD and
colour adsorption from the final discharge of POME
(Abd Wafti et al., 2017). In addition, treatment of
POME by steam-activated carbonised MF met river
water quality discharge limits (Ibrahim et al., 2017).
Palm Oil in Food and Nutrition
With the world population growth projected
to gradually reach 11.2 billion by the year 2100,
the ever-increasing need to ensure a continuous
supply of healthy and nutritious food to meet this
population demand serves as a grand challenge
(United Nations, 2017). In 2017, PO maintained
its position as the most produced and consumed
vegetable oil in the world (Oil World, 2017) despite
concerns raised for nutritional, toxicological and
environmental aspects of PO. PO’s high saturated
fat content relative to other edible oils has been
negatively perceived. Recent concern has also been
raised about the presence of process contaminants
3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and
glycidol esters (GE) in refined PO due to their
potential toxicity (Clemens et al., 2017). However,
a plethora of scientific research suggests that PO
consumption has no harmful effects on human
health, in particular on the risks in the development
of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. PO thus
remains the popular choice for the food industry
worldwide due to its extremely competitive price,
excellent oxidative stability and long shelf-life in
addition to its proven versatility as an important
ingredient in a vast range of food products (Habi
Mat Dian et al., 2017).
In charting the way forward, research on
PO in food and nutrition continually focuses on
improving the quality and food safety aspects of
the oil through adoption of new and transformative
technologies, highlighting the nutritional benefits of
its abundant phytonutrients (Kushairi et al., 2017).
PO is well-known to contain the highest levels of
naturally-occurring vitamin E tocotrienols and pro-
vitamin A carotenoids among edible vegetable oils
(Ng and Choo, 2012; Loganathan et al., 2017). In
addition, there is growing evidence on the health
promotion effects of other phytonutrients present
in PO such as phytosterols, squalene and coenzyme
Q10. Clinical studies have reported on the beneficial
effects of palm tocotrienols on neuroprotection
and cognitive function, cancer, cardiovascular
health, immune modulation, antioxidant and skin
protection in humans (Meganathan and Fu, 2016).
Carotenoids in red palm oil have been associated
with numerous health benefits through their
potential effectiveness in combating vitamin A
deficiency, heart diseases, antiatherogenesis, severe
haemorrhaging, hypertension, cancer protection,
infections, reproductive deficiencies in both males
and females, diabetes, chemotherapy side-effects
178
and hypobaric conditions (Dong et al., 2017;
Loganathan et al., 2017).
Recent investigations on the potential anti-
cancer properties of tocotrienols in PO have shown
that tumour-targeted niosomes entrapped with
tocotrienols significantly improved the therapeutic
efficacy of tocotrienols in human breast cancer
(Tan et al., 2017c). The anti-proliferative activity of
γ -tocotrienols in breast cancer cells was significantly
enhanced via entrapment in niosomes. Significant
tumour-supression by tocotrienols encapsulated
in niosomes was observed in a murine xenograft
model, suggesting tumour-targeted encapsulated
tocotrienols as a promising delivery system in
cancer therapy. Abu-Fayyad and Nazzal (2017)
confirmed previous findings in the literature that
γ- and δ-tocotrienols entrapped in nanoemulsions
possessed greater anti-tumour activity in breast
and pancreatic cancer cells than α-tocopherol and
α-tocotrienol isomers.
Recently, acute supplementation of a single-
dose γ- and δ-tocotrienols with a high-fat
challenge showed no effect on the concentration
of insulinemic, low-grade anti-inflammatory and
anti-thrombogenic markers responses in metabolic
syndrome subjects (Che et al., 2017). In a separate
study, acute supplementation of palm-tocotrienols
and tocopherol mixtures on metabolic syndrome
subjects have indicated the lack of inhibitory effect on
platelet aggregation, platelet activation, coagulation
and inflammatory status (Gan et al., 2017). Both
of these studies displayed the bioavailability of
tocotrienols in plasma; however, longer-term studies
are needed to translate the impact of tocotrienols to
metabolic outcome in humans.
By mid-2018, the USA Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) will require total removal
of partially hydrogenated oils from human food
(USFDA, 2015) to remove trans fats, due to their
proven damaging effect on cardiovascular disease
(CVD) and coronary heart disease. PO has emerged
as one of the most suitable natural partially
hydrogenated oil substitutes due to its balanced
ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids and
abundance of phytonutrients, contributing to the
excellent oxidative stability of the oil. PO contains
approximately 50% of the saturated palmitic and
stearic acids, located predominantly at the sn-1 and
sn-3 position of the glycerol backbone. The unique
triacylglycerol structure of PO has resulted in less
profound effects on the elevation of low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol compared to animal and
dairy fats. Moreover, PO exhibits similar health-
promoting effects as olive oil: comparable effects on
total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and
high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterols and
triglyceride levels in human studies (Voon et al., 2011).
In spite of the numerous studies demonstrating
the healthful benefits of PO, the oil palm industry
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
continues to encounter negative perceptions due to
the potential health risks associated with 3-MCPD,
its esters and GE. This issue was heightened
by the release of the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) Report in 2016 which issued
a potential health warning on chloropropanols,
specifically identifying 3-MCPD as a possible
human carcinogen classified by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (EFSA,
2016). Although no toxicological studies on human
subjects have proven any adverse health effects of
these compounds a provisional maximum tolerable
daily intake (TDI) of 2 μg kg-1 body weight was
recommended by several regulatory and authority
bodies based solely on previous in vitro and in vivo
studies demonstrating toxicity of the compounds on
renal and testicular organs of rats, which were then
projected upon humans. In fact, 3-MCPD, its esters
and GE are present in all refined vegetable oils at
differing levels. It is important to note on the lack of
human studies to assess and confirm possible effects
of long-term 3-MCPD exposure at different levels
over a substantial period of time. A recent in vivo
study by Aasa et al. (2017) confirmed earlier studies
that 3-MCPD exhibited no genotoxicity in mice
through the monitoring of micronuclei frequency
in erythrocytes, despite relatively high doses of
3-MCPD exposure. Lee et al. (2017c) concluded that
3-MCPD did not show carcinogenic potential in
mice administered with 3-MCPD daily for 26 weeks.
The genotoxicity of glycidol was generally reported
to be more of a concern and further human studies
are warranted to evaluate the effects of glycidol on
human health.
Meanwhile, concerted efforts have been
undertaken by oil palm industry stakeholders in the
last decade to minimise and reduce the formation
of 3-MCPD esters and GE throughout the entire oil
palm life cycle from the plantation to refined product.
Mitigation approaches were proposed through
the choice of fertilisers, implementation of timely
harvesting and fruit milling as well as employing
milder processing conditions and utilisation of
additional processing technologies such as short
path distillation for their efficient removal (Clemens
et al., 2017). Intensive R&D of robust analytical
methods for the determination of 3-MCPD esters
and GE in recent years has led to novel, fast and
reliable techniques for the identification and
quantification of these compounds in different
food matrices using state-of-the-art high resolution
instrumentation such as gas chromatography-
mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-triple
quadrupole mass spectrometry and liquid
chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry
(Cheng et al., 2017; Genualdi et al., 2017; Jedrkiewicz
et al., 2017). The urgency in addressing concerns
pertaining to 3-MCPD esters and GE has resulted
in a concentrated holistic approach within the palm
179
oil industry in the past year to develop mitigation
strategies throughout the supply chain, in addition
to the food safety analysis of these compounds.
As 3-MCPD and GE are heat-induced process
contaminants, investigations on the effects of
different high temperature food preparation
techniques such as deep fat frying have been
initiated recently to mitigate 3-MCPD ester and
GE levels during various cooking processes.
Aniolowska and Kita (2016) reported that the GE
content of PO decreased with increasing temperature
and time during intermittent frying of potato
chips, and this correlated with the degree of oil
degradation. However, Wong et al. (2017a) reported
that frying duration and temperature as well as
salt concentrations had profound effects on the
formation of 3-MCPD esters and GE during the deep-
frying of potato chips in palm olein with the former
decreasing at longer frying times and increasing at
higher frying temperatures and salt concentrations
while the latter increased with increasing frying
time, temperature and salt concentration. The same
authors reported similar increases in 3-MCPD
esters with increasing concentration of salt while no
effect on GE formation was observed during deep-
frying of chicken breast meat (Wong et al., 2017b).
By implementing shorter frying time and lower
temperature, as well as the reduction or elimination
of chloride during food preparation, the presence
of 3-MCPD esters within finished food products
may be minimised to levels well below the current
regulatory limit, if not removed entirely.
PO utilisation in the food industry in the past
year has seen continued growth through innovative
and tailor-made products laden with functional
nutrients through various food modification
processes. For example, palm-based designer fats
and nutraceutical supplements are being developed
for various food applications and functionalities.
Preservation of the valuable phytonutrients
contained within PO, in particular the beta carotenes
and vitamin E tocotrienols, and their application
in isolated form in food products have facilitated
their efficient delivery and release, and enhanced
bioavailability while minimising degradation within
the gastrointestinal tract of the human body through
various encapsulation techniques. Delivery vehicles
for microencapsulation of PO nutraceuticals include
complex coacervates, lipid-based colloidal systems
(e.g., solid lipid microparticles), chitosan-alginate
microcapsules and with supercritical carbon dioxide
solution-enhanced dispersions, among others (Brito-
Oliveira et al., 2017; Rutz et al., 2017; Soukoulis and
Bohn, 2017; Tan et al., 2017d).
An interspecific hybrid species of oil palm
(Elaeis oleifera x Elaeis guineensis) yielded an oil
dubbed the ‘tropical equivalent of olive oil’
containing a high percentage of oleic acid, carotenes
and tocochromanols. Studies have shown that this
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
new oil has favourable effects on cardiovascular
health, and its antioxidant capacity in human
plasma lipids and erythrocyte membrane lipids are
similar to that of extra virgin olive oil, thus creating
opportunities for increasing the oil’s application
in a myriad of food products in the near future
including functional foods (Lucci et al., 2016; Pacetti
et al., 2016; Ojeda et al., 2017). With the current
awareness of the rise of CVD, metabolic syndrome
and obesity worldwide, the global food trend has
seen a remarkable shift in consumer preferences, not
merely for more nourishing and wholesome natural
food, but also food containing essential dietary
nutrients and antioxidants. Hitherto, it is no wonder
that the intrinsic nutrient-rich PO will continue to be
a preferred oil and source of functional ingredients
in households and food industry worldwide.
Palm-based Oleochemicals
The palm-based oleochemical manufacturing
industry has contributed significantly to the
economic growth of Malaysia. Two important
palm products, i.e. PO and PKO, are converted
into five basic oleochemical intermediates: fatty
acid, methyl ester, fatty alcohol, fatty amine and
glycerol. Hydrolysis of PO cleaves the triglyceride
molecules into the corresponding fatty acids and
glycerol, which then forms the basis of palm-
based oleochemicals. Recent R&D efforts have
focused upon oleochemicals derivatives such as
bio-polyol for polyurethanes (PU), surfactants and
bio-surfactants, bio-lubricants, agrochemicals and
glycerol derivatives, and assessing the feasibility of
processes/technologies, and their environmental
impacts. However, oleochemicals compete stiffly
with petrochemicals in various markets. With
growing demand for eco-friendly chemicals and
current price volatility of petrochemicals, palm-
based oleochemicals are gaining better consumer
acceptance.
Several palm-based polyols (Pioneer® from palm
olein, Premier® from palm kernel olein, PolyME®
from fatty acid methyl ester and PolyMO® from oleic
acid) have been developed for their applications
in PU foams and non-foam products (Hazimah et
al., 2011). The oligomeric polyols synthesised from
epoxidised methyl oleate and palm olein produce
PU with good elastomeric properties (Hoong et
al., 2017a). Many products are produced using
PU such as automotive parts (pad dash panels
and carpet underlays), sealants and adhesives,
decorative panels, ceiling panel, insulation panel,
flexible PU slabstock foam and coated fertilisers.
Palm-based memory foam, characterised by its
slow recovery after compression, was successfully
formulated and utilised in pillows, upholstered
furniture, flooring underlays, cushioning (e.g. neck
cushions), and as foams for noise and vibration
180
harshness control (Nurul’ Ain et al., 2016). Recently,
soft PU elastomers with >70% bio-based content
was successfully prepared from PolyME® polyol
and Pioneer® polyols, which serve as a platform
for the development of transparent elastomers that
can be used as soft energy-absorbing materials with
potential use in pressure sensitive adhesives (Mohd
Norhisham et al., 2017).
The cosmetics industry is now a huge luxury
global market (MPOB, 2010). More recently,
consumers have demanded natural resources to be
used in cosmetics and personal care (CPC) products.
CPC products cover four main categories: skin care,
hair care, oral care and colour cosmetic in varying
forms, e.g. lotion, cream, liquid, gel and stick. They
can be formulated using palm-based oleochemicals
such as glycerine, fatty acids (lauric, myristic, palmitic
and stearic acids), fatty alcohols and their esters,
which are natural, mild and globally acceptable, at
levels ranging from 60% to 70% (Rosnah et al., 2011).
One example is 9,10-dihydroxystearic acid (DHSA),
a patented synthesis from palm oleic acid that is
highly biodegradable (Razmah et al., 2015). DHSA
is now used as a coating material to help increase
colour intensity and improve glossiness in colour
cosmetic products; and improve transparency,
foaming and cleaning power of transparent soaps
(Rosnah et al., 2015). In addition, polyhydroxyl
estolides synthesised via a one-pot low temperature
self-oligomerisation of oleic acid (Hoong et al.,
2017b) acts as an emulsifier for CPC products.
Glycerol (glycerine), an important co-
product from the biodiesel industry with three
hydroxyl groups, is an ideal starting material for
many chemicals via oxidation, polymerisation,
reduction, and dehydration. Many new uses of
glycerol have been identified through conversion
into polyglycerols (polymeric materials), esters
(emulsifier), glycerol alkyl ether (in cosmetic and
liquid cleaner formulas), and other derivatives such
as glycerol carbonate, glycerol metal complex, etc.
Glycerol carbonate is one of the most potentially
useful glycerol derivatives. The oligomerisation
of glycerol carbonate produces polyhydroxylated
oligomers rich in linear carbonate groups (Mw
< 1000 Da). oligo-(Glycerol carbonate-glycerol
ether) is a viable alternative to petroleum-based
polyethylene oxide in the preparation of non-ionic
surfactants (Holmiere et al., 2017). Crude glycerol
can also be potentially fermented by a commercial
strain, Klebsiella pneumoniae or a newly isolated
Kluyvera cryocrescens from POME, to produce
1,3-propanediol which serves as a specialty platform
chemical (Rosland Abel and Loh, 2017a, b).
One major end-use of oleochemicals is for
preparing surfactants. The main surfactant type is
anionic which acts as the key ingredient in making
detergent and household cleaning products, from
10% to 30% of the total formulation (Razmah et
 OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2017
al., 2006). The most common anionic surfactants
are linear alkyl benzene sulphonates (LAS), fatty
alcohol sulphates and fatty alcohol ether sulphates.
The former is petrochemical-based while the latter
two can be bio-based or derived from fossil fuels.
LAS has been the major anionic surfactant used
in detergent and household cleaning products
for >30 years; but, the recent increase of crude oil
prices coupled with successful commercialisation of
oleochemical-based methyl ester sulphonates (MES)
may change this situation. MES has been produced
through direct suphonation of palm-based methyl
esters since 2000 via a fully automated pilot plant at
20 kg hr-1 capacity (Razmah et al., 2006). The product
shows superior properties over LAS in terms of
detergency, biodegradation and also tolerance to
different water hardness (Salmiah et al., 1998). The
performance of MES-based powder and liquid
detergents produced has been found comparable
to leading LAS-based detergent brands currently
available in the markets (Zulina et al., 2006).
Furthermore, MES-based detergents are readily
biodegradable in aquatic environment (Siti Afida
et al., 2016; 2017). Liquid detergent formulated
with MES successfully made its way to the
shelf of Malaysian supermarkets, while powder
detergent will soon follow suit with formulation
already been taken up by another company
(Zulina et al., 2017a).
PO and its esters exhibit good adhesion to metal,
good lubricity, high oxidative stability and desirable
viscosity index properties, and therefore serve as a
suitable base fluid for various lubricant formulations
such as grease, hydraulic fluid, insulating fluid for
transformers, metal-working fluid and drilling fluid
(Noor Armylisa’s et al., 2016; Tang et al., 2017). Also,
food-grade lubricants have been developed for food
processing and PO milling equipment using palm-
based esters emphasising on safety to prevent from
any accidental contamination of biolubricant in
food products (Yeong et al., 2010; Loh et al., 2016).
Recently, a technology to produce palm polyol ester
for biodegradable and non-toxic lubricants with
low acidity has been developed which fulfils the
industrial standard quality requirement (Zulina et
al., 2017b). Synthesis of trimethylolpropane triesters
and palm oil methyl esters was performed using
a mixture of 1 wt% Ca and Sr oxides and 5 wt%
SrO on CaO, yielding 88% of palm-based lubricant
(Ivan-Tan et al., 2017).
Agrochemical (insecticide and herbicide)
formulations, e.g. aqueous concentrates, emulsifiable
concentrates, wettable powders, suspension
concentrates, emulsion-in-water concentrates (EW),
water dispersible granules, etc. are derived from
active and inert ingredients. Inert ingredients from
palm-based oleochemicals such as fatty acids, fatty
alcohol ethoxylates, fatty alcohol ether sulphates,
fatty amine oxide and glycerol esters are employed
181
to increase the uptake and efficacy of active
ingredients (e.g. deltamethrin as pesticide), improve
wetting properties and/or spraying characteristics.
Palm-based methyl esters are suitable green solvents
for EW-based pesticide formulations (Ismail et al.,
2014; Sumaiyah et al., 2017), to replace conventional
petroleum-based solvents.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Oil palm has been commercially cultivated in
Malaysia since 1917, and the 100th anniversary
of this event in 2017 was widely commemorated
throughout Malaysia. As nature’s gift to Malaysia, it
flourishes in tropical climate impacting every walk
of life as an ingredient that is so necessary for not
just food, feed, fuels and chemicals.
The oil produced, PO, provides many benefits
for human health through decades of scientific
research. In order to continuously expand and
be relevant in the next 100 years, the oil palm
industry and its stakeholders must stand united and
collaborate across disciplines and industrial sectors,
to readily showcase and develop more innovative
and highly disruptive technologies at every level
of the supply chain from upstream, midstream,
to downstream processes. A blend of traditional
sciences with new advancements in technology is
desirably taking into account transformative and
industrial revolutionary convergence which is
essential for the whole industry to be at the forefront
of these changes in meeting high-income status and
sustainable development.
Yield enhancement via advanced breeding and
tissue culture propagation in developing improved
planting materials is at the core of the industry which
is of utmost importance due to decade-long issues
concerning stagnating yields, land scarcity, labour
shortage and climate change, which collectively
are a threat to the industry. These challenges
together with environmental degradation, erratic
weather patterns and rising fuel cost are seen as
opportunities to improve crop yields. This is where
the amalgamation of enabling technologies such
as advanced computational systems integrating
‘big data’ information with high end detection
components is changing the way to do things. We
foresee a more concerted effort will be channelled to
plant phenotyping to support the rapid development
of plant genomics in realising the vision of a
digital plantation in the future. Automation and
mechanisation will be key in transforming the current
plantation management into a more cost-efficient and
modern entity. The use of cloud computing, advanced
sensors, drones, robotics, etc., in developing efficient
harvesting tools and providing necessary training
are crucial in moving towards improved automation
and mechanisation due to labour scarcity.
JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 30 (2) (JUNE 2018)
Flexibility in technology, process development
and information utilisation to accommodate
changes or align and generalise overall large-
scale system operation is highly sought-after for
high throughput screening in PO processing.
Transforming the abundantly generated oil palm co-
products along the supply chain through versatile
biomass valorisation in creating a circular economy
is seen a big leap for the oil palm industry to be
at a competitive edge in the international arena in
pursuing global sustainability, a goal increasing
in popularity. Optimisation and diversification
efforts will increasingly be emphasised due to
resource scarcity. In the midst of increasing oil
palm productivity, new innovative technologies
within palm oil mills (e.g. a biorefinery), taking into
account a multi-layered system approach coupled
with smart government-private partnership are
urged to drive the industry further for profitable
and sustainable PO production.
Factual and robust information on PO nutrition
were evidenced through extensive scientific
research amid negative allegations against PO
linking to various health issues. Moving forward,
refining and fractionation of PO in the future need
to take advantage of digital technology in producing
niche PO specialty products featuring ready-to-
eat, convenient and well-balanced nutrients, as
well as smart and superfood formulation loaded
with palm phytonutrients. Tailoring food to meet
an individual’s genetic make-up and lifestyle is
desirable. As such, a customised or personalised
palm-based food menu caters to individual
optimum health benefits and caloric requirement
based on lifestyle will be the goal.
The oleochemical segment contributes to
almost every manufactured product. Thus, palm-
based oleochemicals are well situated to play an
increasingly greater role in the global oleochemical
industry, impacting many markets such as
agriculture, automotive, construction, household
and consumer products, etc. Transforming the
future palm-based oleochemicals will require
collaboration between oleo- and petro-chemicals
industries through transformative and new
chemical, biochemical and catalytic technologies to
boost the performances of the resulting individual
ingredient/final products and enhance their bio-
based content and environmental sustainability.
Another aspect is sustainability and certification
of PO encompassing the three important socio-
economic elements of planet, profit and people.
Quality and food safety should not be compromised
while continually promoting PO as a healthy oil
globally. It is important to ensure that all palm-based
products perform superiorly to meet specifications
eligible for premium pricing. Holistically integrating
all potential sub-processes or activities along the
whole PO supply chain must be accomplished to
182
ultimately maximise outputs, minimise waste and
feedstock utilisation and propagate value-addition.
Expanding data volumes across R&D ensures ‘big
data’ generation, bringing the Internet of things
(IoT) and 3D printing to the forefront in projecting
the benefits and versatility of PO and its products.
Effective communication with the help of IoT is to be
accelerated in positioning the oil palm industry as a
responsible global agriculture leader – in technology,
innovation, and development throughout the PO
supply chain.
CONCLUSION
The oil palm industry recorded substantial economic
growth and R&D progress in 2017 globally in its
current challenging landscapes. Emphasis is on yield
improvement through biotechnological approach.
Issues surrounding the oil palm industry pertaining
to sustainability and the environment demand the
industry to be on constant lookout for the latest
advancements and technologies. Innovation-
based development of the industry is the key to
sustainable economic growth across its process
chain. However, the direction it takes depends very
much on industry’s readiness in embracing these
so-called transformations. It is evident, time and
again, that by immersing in new technologies and
employing them routinely both in research and field
practices will expedite the transformation of the oil
palm industry into a more resilient industry when
facing the challenges of the future. Focus should
now be directed at enhancing the upstream sector
whilst balancing the midstream and downstream
applications towards creating a new economic
model for the oil palm industry by positioning it as
one of the largest wealth-generating sectors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to thank all from the different
divisions at MPOB for their contribution to this
article.
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